color patterns and genes

Linda writes
:Tom said - <<...And the yellow, orange or pink rim (with colored standards)
:is the 'aurata' or 'favescens' pattern.>>
:
:Does that mean aurata and favescens are the same? And the genetics or source
:of the pattern is the same for yellow, orange, and pink?
Exactly so.
:
:I used to think plicatas had stitched or dark vein patterns around the edges,
:but they can also be dotted, right? Do those two patterns have separate
:names and heredity?
The conventional wisdom is that the "stitched" plics and "dotted" plics
are both caused by the same gene, but that there may be other genes that
modify the pattern to make it slightly different in the two cases. I've
always been curious about this particular point, and I would love to
see some serious study made of it.
Many of the "dotted" plics are in the brown color range, have standards
that are very blended (so the plicata pattern appears very indistinct),
and derive from the species I. variegata. The precisely stitched plics
almost always have a white ground, precise markings, even on the standards,
and descend from the pallida-like plicata hybrids--whose origin is still
pretty mysterious.
:
:Are there other hereditary patterns in bearded iris that we haven't talked
:about yet?
Yes indeed. ;)
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Tom Tadfor Little tlittle@lanl.gov -or- telp@Rt66.com
technical writer/editor Los Alamos National Laboratory
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Telperion Productions http://www.rt66.com/~telp/
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